Tightrope
by Amy Rochelle
Summary: It's been 3 years since Grissom and Sara have seen each other. What happens when he returns for a serial murder that shocks Las Vegas? Appearances by old friends and new. Rated T to be safe.


_A/N: Wow. It's been a long time hasn't it? Seems like forever since I've visited the realm of this show / fandom and these characters._

 _I'm sad to see this show come to an end, but I'm glad that they're giving it one last hurrah and the ending that it deserves. With all this movie talk, it's inspired me to write. And with Billy coming back it just gives me even more hope that the GSR will have their final Happy Ending. I am so thankful for this show and these characters. They've done some pretty amazing things to my life and they've introduced me to some even more amazing people. :)_

 _This story is the product of my warped and twisted mind and what I would like to happen in the movie. The case within is totally made up and something that just popped into my head. :)_

 _Characters contained within do not belong to me and the song doesn't either. Song is Tightrope by Kelly Clarkson. It just fits this ship so well. Special thanks to Forensiphile for looking over any mistakes I made._

 _Enjoy and hopefully this will tide you over until September._

 _You're on the tightrope, I've got my reasons_

 _How did we get so tangled?_

 _You turn, I stay straight, I bend as you break_

 _We're so messed up, but I know_

 _That you and I will fall in time, eventually_

 _Or maybe we'll both die trying_

"You know Greg, I think your hair might actually be getting grayer?"

Sara pursed her lips into a smile at Greg as she noticed him when she walked into the break room looking at a rather large mirror, perplexed.

"It's not that...I think my hair is falling out. I'm so stressed out I'm molting." He pouted into the mirror, paying particular attention to a suspect bald spot.

Her giggle enveloped the room as she poured coffee into her cup then placed the carafe back on the heater and took a seat next to him.

"You know, some women find baldness attractive." A smile played at her lips as she lifted the cup to take a sip.

"Are you coming on to me?" He smirked at his reflection through the mirror, darting his eyes over the top to see her face.

"Ha. Not quite Romeo. I was just stating a fact." Her look got rather wispy as she thought about how much easier it could have been to love Greg. But then again, nothing in her life was ever easy.

As their banter played back and forth like a tennis match, DB rushed in, interrupting them.

"419 near Lake Mead. Greg, you're up." DB handed the slip to Greg and he begrudgingly accepted his bosses' request.

"My work here is never done." He sighed and pushed himself away from the table, leaving the two of them. She couldn't quite place the look on his face.

She furrowed her brow at the older man. "You okay, DB?"

He sighed and took a seat next to her. "Ecklie wants to talk to you about the case. I would tell you myself, but he insisted in speaking to you about it." He seemed...uneasy. She sensed there was something more he wanted to tell her, but thought better of it. She made a mental note to ask him later.

"Ah, yes. Using his authority again I see. Starting to feel like old times around here." She chuckled a little and headed out of the break room towards Ecklie's office. While she walked through the halls of the lab, she could feel everyone's eyes on her. The last time she felt that way, seemed like a lifetime ago.

She came to a stop in front of his door.

 _Conrad Ecklie. Undersheriff._

She rapped lightly on the glass and a muffled "Come in" could be heard from the other side. She opened the door to find him still on the phone and he motioned for her to have a seat. She half smiled at him, nodded, and sat on the oversized, uncomfortable leather guest chair.

"Yes. Okay. I'll see you for dinner tonight then. Love you, honey." He hung up and looked towards her direction.

"Morgan. We try to have dinner twice a week. She says it's good for our relationship."

"It's good that you've reconnected. It's never too late to mend fences." She smiled a genuine smile at him. For a long time she didn't particularly care for the man sitting in front of her, but over the years their relationship grew to a mutual respect. Something she thought would never happen.

He smiled back at her, then cleared his throat. "Yes. Well about that..." He shuffled some papers on his desk, getting awkward and uncomfortable all of a sudden. He didn't look at her. She furrowed her brow as he folded his hands on top of his desk and leveled his gaze to her.

"It's about the case you're working on. We've already linked it to a serial murder."

She nodded. This wasn't news to her. She let him continue. "But of course you already know that. It's not the how, but the who. More preferably, _who_ you'll be working with..." He trailed off and looked away.

Suddenly, a panic rose within her and her heart started to beat. _Fast_.

He met her gaze once more and his words seemed to go straight to her heart as they left his lips.

"Sara. I've called in Gil to help with the case."

Her face went pale and her mouth suddenly went dry. She couldn't speak. Her ears started ringing and she couldn't really comprehend the next words he was saying. It was like he was talking in a tunnel.

Gil. _Here_.

"I would much rather you hear it from me instead of DB, knowing your history..."

She cut him off, "That's all Conrad?"

He nodded. "Yes and Sara..."

"Okay. I'll keep you informed." She got up quickly and hurried out of his office, afraid she'd crumble in front of him and that's the last thing she wanted Conrad Ecklie to see.

Closing the door behind her, she hurriedly made her way to the locker room, finding her respite corner that she often visited in darker times.

It then suddenly hit her. Grissom. Grissom is coming _back_. Because Ecklie called him to come assist on a case. How could he? She was pissed at Ecklie, but she was even more pissed at Grissom.

She was so angry she wanted to cry. She tried so, so hard to live without him. These last couple of years living in complete agony. Every once and a while she would cry herself to sleep. Cry for what was. Cry for what wasn't. Cry for what could have been. It wasn't fair that he so willingly came when Conrad called, but wouldn't come to her when she tried so desperately to mend what was already broken. But you couldn't mend what was shattered into pieces. Scattered through her life, and her heart, in shards.

She tried to think about how she was going to do this, how she was going to be able to handle seeing him, let alone _work_ with him again after everything that had happened, when DB walked in. She hurriedly wiped at her eyes and stood up, smoothing out the material of her slacks.

"I wanted to tell you Sara, but Conrad thought it would be best coming from him." She nodded, not looking at him. He adjusted his glasses and moved towards her, reaching out to touch her shoulder. He gave it a tight squeeze. She looked up at him and met his gaze, her nerves a jumbled mess.

"If you need anything, you just let me know. You can always talk to me." She nodded and he dropped his arm to his side. As he walked out of the room, he turned to look at her from the door way. "From what I hear, it's all hands on deck. Catherine's on her way too. Seems they've been tracking this guy for a while on her end and Nick's had a couple of hits in his area with the same similarities."

She gave him a lopsided, watery smile, her voice just above a whisper, "Just like old times."

"Yeah." He returned her smile and walked away, leaving her to her thoughts.

How was she supposed to get through this? She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. She could do it. She survived near death with a serial killer. She could do anything.

 ** _72 Hours Later_**

"Alright, guys. Let's walk through it." DB stood at the end of the layout table, all eyes on his team. Old and new.

Catherine had just flown in from her field office in the FBI and Nick had arrived the night before from San Diego.

There was just one person missing.

"Body found near the Bellagio. 28. James Archer. Vegas." Greg thumbed through the folder, finding the crime scene photos and laying them out on the table for everyone to see.

"Ashley Kyle. 29. Found near the MGM. Vegas." Sara located Ashley's file and set it next to Greg's.

"Kyle Larson. 28. Found near the fountain of Gaslamp Quarter. Downtown San Diego." Nick placed his file next to Sara's.

"Whitney Mason. 29. Found in the woods a mile down from her house. Hollow Hills." Catherine placed the case file next to Nick's.

"Four victims. Four different places. No connection. Yet they all were placed in the same position." DB rounded the table and stopped at each file, examining them carefully.

"There's no exact signature that we can pin point, but we know they're related." Sara crossed her arms and looked at her supervisor. He nodded.

"Right and there was no physical evidence on the victims. No fingerprints, shoe prints, nothing." DB picked up the most recent crime scene photo and held it up to better examine it.

"I'm sorry I'm-"

The whole room stopped and looked at the door with wide eyes to the all too familiar voice.

"...late" Gil Grissom walked in, all eyes on him except the two he most desperately wanted to see.

"That's okay, Gil. Welcome to our brainstorming session. I'm DB Russell." DB introduced himself and shook Grissom's hand.

"Yes. I've heard a lot about you." His eyes slowly moved toward Sara, who suddenly found an interest in one of the case photos.

"Well, now that you're here, I can catch you up to speed." DB led Grissom to the layout table and he took the empty spot beside him.

Grissom unearthed his glasses from his pocket, placing them on his face. "What have we got?"

"Four victims. Four different places. All were positioned in the same pose." Morgan informed the veteran CSI.

"How do we know they're all related? It could be coincidence."

"It's not. Each victim was strategically placed and we're close to a connection." Sara responded, defiantly.

Everyone was silent as their eyes moved to the two ex-lovers in the room.

Grissom took off his glasses momentarily and looked at his now estranged wife. "That's not a workable theory, Sara. There's no evidence that supports a connection between the murders."

She glared at him. _Hard_. "It's not a workable theory because I said it? Would it be a workable theory if Catherine had said it?" Her words were like ice. Knowing full well the undertones of her comment.

"Sara-"

"I'm sorry. I can't do this." She felt like her walls were closing in and she was struggling for air. She had to get out. She hurried out of the Layout Room and into the hallway, Grissom on her heels.

"Sara. Wait-"

She whipped around to face him with fire in her eyes.

"Wait Gil? I've _waited_ for three years. Waited for you to figure out 'what to do about this'. 'For better for worse'. Did that mean anything to you?" By now, everyone within earshot began to nonchalantly watch the scene unfold in front of them.

He stuffed his hands in his pockets, searching for the right words to say to her. He was never good at communicating his feelings, especially to her. Although he had grown better throughout the course of their short lived marriage, it was still hard for him to be so open around her.

Working up the nerve to express his feelings, he looked at her. She was so angry at him. And she had every right to be. His behavior was inexcusable. She'd loved him for as long as he could remember and he'd loved her ever since he noticed her inquisitive nature at his guest lecture all those years ago. The bright eyed, beautiful young woman with a ponytail.

"It meant, _means_ , everything to me, Sara. That's why I let you go. I was holding you back. I wanted you to have a chance at a life. I didn't want you sitting around waiting for me."

Now she was even angrier at him.

"That's a cowardly way out, Gil. You'd just let me off the hook so you could travel all over the world on your excavations and your guest lectures? Not even bothering to consult me or the fact that _I_ could figure out what was best for me?"

He shook his head. "No. That's not-"

She held her hand up to stop him. "Save it. I'm tired, Gil. I've spent enough nights crying over you. I don't want to anymore. I _can't_ anymore." His face fell as she said the words. "When you decide you want to be my husband, let me know. If not, hand me over the divorce papers and I'll sign them. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a case to solve." Her unshed tears clung to her eyes while she walked past him and back into the Layout Room.

He stood there. Hands still in his pockets. Feeling totally and utterly defeated. He felt a migraine begin to form at the corner of his temples. His marriage, he felt like, was completely over. And it was entirely his fault.

Sara walked in to a silent room with all eyes on her.

"I'm sorry, where were we?"

Catherine shook her head back to reality, pretending that she didn't just hear the conversation in the hallway. "Um, we, uh, made a travel route." She grabbed the large map that was placed near her and moved it towards the middle so she could begin to draw a trail. Grissom slipped in, unnoticed by everyone but Sara. She could always feel his presence when he walked into a room. Turning her attention away from him, she focused on Catherine's presentation.

"All his victims were placed within a 5 to 10 mile radius from I-15. That gives us a good starting point for a search span." Catherine marked the spots in which the victims had been placed and drew a line from each point. Once she was finished, she clipped it to one of the side projector boards to give everyone working a better view of the map.

DB drew closer and studied the map carefully, trying to find any unique pattern that he could in relation to locations.

"Hey…guys?" Sara didn't take her eyes off the case notes. Everyone in the room turned their attention to the tall brunette.

She finally looked up and locked gazes with DB, "I think I found our connection and signature."

Everyone in the room huddled closer as she spread out the case notes and crime scene photos.

"James Archer. Ashley Kyle. Whitney Mason. Kyle Larson. They were all athletes. All class of 2004-2005 from Seabrook High in Santa Barbara."

"James Archer played football. He was a wide receiver. He played in college, but he tore his ACL and his career was over." Greg read aloud.

"Ashley Kyle played tennis. She went on to the pros, but her elbow never healed correctly from the surgery so that ended her career." Sara pointed to the case file.

"Whitney Mason played soccer. She was a star athlete and ended up as a prospect for the US National Team, but she never kicked grass in a game." Catherine unfolded Whitney's file and spread it out next to the others.

"Kyle Larson. Star hockey forward. He made it to the minors, but he went undrafted and no one picked him up." Morgan moved to grab Kyle's file, moving it to join the others.

"Four athletes. One school. All crashed and burned trying to get to the pros. Good job, Sara." She smiled at her supervisor, thankful for his praise. She needed a good pick me up. "Thanks DB, but that's not all I found." She grabbed the four case photos she was looking for then clipped them to the side board next to Catherine's map.

She turned to her coworkers. "Not only were they all athletes, but they were all children of the 90's. Which really isn't significant unless you weren't paying attention to specific detail." She smirked a little and continued, uncapping a marker and circling the point of her lecture.

"I know what those are." Greg squinted to get a closer look and then grinned and hurried his way towards Sara."They're Pogs."

Tapping her marker, she smiled at her once protégé, "Right Greg."

"That's it! That's the signature. Way to go Sara!" Greg smiled approvingly at her.

"Alright everyone," DB clapped his hands together, focusing the room's attention to him, "Greg, get the graduating class roster from 2003-2004 of Seabrook High and the team sports list. Start looking for connections from all angles. Take Morgan with you. Nick, Catherine. Talk to those close to the victims, see if you can find what made them tick and find anyone out for revenge. I'll go through the evidence again, see if I can find anything that we missed. Gil, Sara. You can give me a hand. Let's go find a killer, team." Everyone meandered out of the room slowly, making small talk with each other.

Gil, Sara and DB stood around the layout table and quietly collected case notes. "Everything okay with you two?" DB broke the awkward silence after a few minutes.

"Fine." Sara said curtly, not looking up from her task at hand. "Okay. I'll go grab the evidence boxes and we can go through them in here." DB hesitantly headed out towards the evidence vault, leaving Grissom and Sara alone.

"Sara, you didn't let me explain earlier..."

He grabbed her hand lightly as she reached over to collect a crime scene photo and she closed her eyes slowly. His touch causing her to shiver slightly. Why was she so weak around him? She could feel her walls slowly start to crumble with just a simple touch.

He spoke low, his voice gravely. "I know that I've hurt you deeply and I'm sorry. Nothing can erase what I did. I know that things can never be the way they were between us, but can we start over?"

When she opened her eyes, he was staring at her.

Brown meeting blue.

It felt like he was staring right into her soul. There were so many times she got lost in his eyes over the years they'd been together and she felt herself sinking back into old habits. Something she was trying very hard to overcome when it came to him. She wanted to answer him, but she couldn't find the right words to say. She couldn't find _any_ words to say without crying. She quickly brought herself out of her reverie, DB shuffling in with boxes of loaded evidence, snapping her out of the hold he had over her. She cleared her throat and slowly moved her hand away from his. His face falling ever so slightly.

Setting the stack of heavy boxes near her, DB retrieved a knife and began to cut open the taped sides.

"Now that we have a connection, we know what to look for. Let's see if we can find anything now that we have more information."

They slowly and meticulously sifted through evidence, occasionally uttering possible connections within the victim's belongings and case notes.

"I got it!" Greg barreled into the room, waving paper into the air. He wedged himself between the small group and spread out his findings for them to see.

"Billy Rudd. 29. He was a nerd in high school. He didn't have a lot of friends. He graduated with Honors and he was head of the science club. He graduated with all four victims."

"That's great Greg, but how do you know he did it?" DB looked over Greg's findings.

"It's a hunch.."

Grissom gave him a look over his glasses, "Greg…"

"Griss, I mean there's too much of a coincidence. Nerdy McNerdo here graduated with Honors in 2004. He was a full on geek. He was a child of the 90's and come on! All nerds had Pogs growing up in the 90's! He probably got terrorized by one or all of the popular kids and some recent repressed memory got triggered and he ended up going on a killing spree."

"That's not going to get a warrant to search his place. How do you know he lives here?" DB directed his attention to one of printouts Greg had brought.

"Morgan and I did a search of the graduating classes and who lived within the radius of the murder scenes. Billy Rudd lives in Henderson. He works for some pharmaceutical company making prescription drugs. Which makes sense because we found anti-depressants in all the vic's system. He did it, Russell. I can feel it"

He nodded. "Okay. Let's get a warrant to search his house. Good work, Greg." Greg hurried out of the room in search of Morgan to get a warrant from the D.A.

"I'll see if I can round up everyone else to search the suspect's place." Sara side-eyed Grissom and left him and DB alone.

"What was the real reason you came Gil?" DB asked him, genuinely curious while Grissom began to carefully put away the evidence.

"I came to help on the case."

"Now, you and I both know that's not true." DB crossed his arms and looked at him.

"Partly."

"So you just assumed that you'd pick up where you guys left off?" DB ignored Grissom's comment and instead asked the question he really wanted to.

Grissom looked up, staring DB straight in the eye, "I hoped."

DB shook his head and laughed humorlessly, "I've worked with her for a few years and she's a great gal. Smart, pretty, and she's got her full career ahead of her. But you know, there was always a light missing in her eyes. From what I hear, when you were around it was always on. When she had that rough patch a couple of years ago, that's when I really noticed that the light was gone. I've been married a long time Gil and I know what it feels like sometimes to have that light go dim, but not completely go out. It happened the moment we moved to Vegas and I swore to myself that I would do whatever it took to keep that light on, no matter how bright it is. I know you love her. I just met you, yet I've noticed the way you look at her and I've heard all the stories around her. I know she loves you. We've talked about some things time to time when she needed it and I was with her through the rough times. My advice to you is to fix it."

Grissom weighed what DB had to say and he knew he was right. He had to fix it.

"Thank you, Russell. I know things can never be the way they were, but we can start to mend what was damaged. Thank you for taking care of her when I couldn't."

DB nodded at him and reached out to take his hand once more. "The pleasure is all mine. Now, go after her." He smiled at him and watched him walk out the door as he finished what Grissom started.

Grissom hurried down the halls of the lab, something that felt all too familiar. In search of the one thing that he so desperately needed. He rounded the corner towards the break room and everyone was huddled around the table, Sara included.

She looked from Catherine to him, fixing him with a hard gaze. He ignored it and hurried around the table towards her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her with all his built up passion and want that he'd missed for three years. He heard her gasp and that made him kiss her harder.

Sara's head was spinning and she didn't know what to do. She wanted to pound his chest and push him away and she wanted to just melt into his arms and pretend like nothing had happened between them. But she couldn't do it. She pulled away from him, breathless. Completely forgetting that they were in a room full of people.

"Sara, I-"

Without a word she grabbed his hands and guided him to the locker room so they could talk more privately.

"Do you think that kissing me is just going to make it all better?" She crossed her arms in front of her chest and stared at him.

He rubbed his hands up and down her arms, something he used to do to calm her down. "No. I don't, but it's a start. Sara I don't want to just go on and pretend like nothing ever happened. I know that we can never get back to the way things used to be, but I'm willing to work on it. For you and for me. Because I love you. I always _have_ loved you.

She finally let her walls crumble around her at his words and she began to cry, "I was _so_ mad at you. I always thought I would be mad at you. I've loved you forever and just the thought of not being with you _killed_ me. I couldn't imagine myself with anyone else, Gil. I wished you would have seen that or at least talked to me before you made a decision for yourself."

"I know honey. It was selfish and I'm sorry." He lifted his hand up to wipe her tears from her cheeks.

She moved in to his touch and lifted her hand to rest on his on her cheek. "Mm. I've missed you. I've missed _this_."

He smiled a little. "Me too. Does this mean that we're okay?"

"We're not okay by any means, but we're on our way to getting there."


End file.
